Constructor: Olivia Mitra Franke
Relative difficulty: ??? Easy but also I got stalled forever ("forever") because of a wrong Apple product guess and also LASERED, LOL no that is not a thing...
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THEME: AU PAIRS (40A: Some household helpers ... or an oral hint to 17-, 24-, 51- and 63-Across) — each theme answer features two "O" pairs:
Theme answers:
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I only had one glass of wine but somehow I could not type smoothly at all tonight, so my time was more bloated than it should've been. I think the puzzle was easy, although LASERED feels laughable to me and because of the whole 'hit'-is-both-present-and-past-tense thing, I had no idea what was going on there (46D: Hit with a beam of light). I guess the verb "to laser" is a thing in hair removal (?) but that's not in the clue and I only know the verb LASED and so when I finally got it all I could picture was someone in a scif show going "I LASERED him good!" and it just made no sense. Laser hair removal, I know about. LASERED as a verb, not so much. I also guessed IPAD instead of IMAC, which cost me, and which, honestly ... is just the worst (37D: Popular Apple product). I mean, Apple products are such ugh. You know them, but it's like "which one?" and the clue's all "I'm not telling?" and you're like "stupid four letters, guess I gotta check crosses, this is *tedious*!" etc. Anyway, IPAD and LASERED caused a LOAD of problems and did not ENHANCE my enjoyment of the puzzle. Luckily, the theme was nifty—a near perfect Monday-type concept, with simple, snappy fill. Nice revealer. Nice. Fill overall was a *little* on the weak side, but mostly just dull and stale (AGORA ORR AAS etc). But, again, didn't matter. Theme zinged. Puzzle was appropriately easy. Thumbs up.
HOOHA always makes me laugh, first because it is slang for "vagina" and second because it's the title of the first story in the first MAD magazine ever published (1952), a story I teach every year (it's fantastic and genuinely funny—although there, it's spelled with a terminal "H," as it often is in the "disturbance" meaning of the word as well):
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Relative difficulty: ??? Easy but also I got stalled forever ("forever") because of a wrong Apple product guess and also LASERED, LOL no that is not a thing...
Theme answers:
- SCOOBY-DOO (17A: Mystery-solving Great Dane of cartoons)
- GOOGLE DOODLE (24A: Logo art that changes almost daily)
- BAMBOO SHOOTS (51A: Stir-fry ingredients, often)
- FOOL PROOF (63A: Can't-miss)
informal: a state or condition of excitement, agitation, or disturbance : COMMOTION, UPROAR (wikipedia)
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HOOHA always makes me laugh, first because it is slang for "vagina" and second because it's the title of the first story in the first MAD magazine ever published (1952), a story I teach every year (it's fantastic and genuinely funny—although there, it's spelled with a terminal "H," as it often is in the "disturbance" meaning of the word as well):
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| W: Harvey Kurtzman, A: Jack Davis |
I had the Jeep Grand Cherokee as an ATV at first (??)—got the "V" first and ... I dunno, some kind of instinct kicked in (ATV = ~2x as common as SUV in the NYTXW). Had SNEER for SCOWL (7D: Angry expression). Everything else went pretty smoothly. [Place to buy a drink] seems too vague for CASH BAR. Gotta be a be a more colorful and specific way to do that one. GRANOLAS in the plural is a little weird, but I guess if you're looking at various brand all lined up on a supermarket shelf, OK. It's all OK. It will do just fine. Again, with a theme this tight, on a Monday ,all you gotta do is not completely blow the fill, and I would say Mission: Accomplished on that front.
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